The Business Behind your Book

Dear beautiful women authors,

If you missed this segment of the Write to Dream Radio Show, you MUST hear the recoding. This is what the audience is saying:

“This was like a 101 Course on Book Publishing, and for free.”

“I wish I had heard this show several years ago, when I was beginning. It would have saved me a lot of headaches.”

“This was a great topic. Thanks for a great show!”

So here’s the link right now:

http://www.writetodream.com/radioshow/no4.htm

Here’s a summary:

The show started with an inspirational and experiential exercise provided by Maria Mar. You can enjoy it at this blog, and post your comments or questions:

http://writetodream.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/building-you-book-like-a-bridge/

Then author, book coach and publisher Shelley Lieber, proceeded to fire an incredible amount of information, knowledge and resources that gave an amazing power journey to any beginning writer. Shelley is knowledgeable and her experience as an editor and book coach allows her to go directly to the most useful information. She packed an empowering show that you don’t want to miss. In fact, I recommend that you listen to it several times, arm with pen and pad. This show can open the doors to your book success or place you in the right track to plan a successful book.

Here are some pointers about the Business Behind your Book offered by Shelley Lieber:

BOOK PLANNING STAGE

Maria Mar: When does the book planning stage begin?

Shelley Lieber:

• Book Planning starts the minute you have the idea for the book. Don’t think you are not writing just because you are not writing your book draft yet. I strongly recommend that you use journal writing at this stage to develop your ideas.
• One of the best things you can do during your book planning stage is setting up goals. Get clear on your intentions for the book.

Maria Mar: What are the three best things authors can do for their expert (non-fiction) book at the planning stage?

Shelley Lieber:

• Know your unique positioning in the market for your book topic and genre.
• Answer this question: Who will read my book?
• Establish how you will reach your audience.

Maria Mar: What are the three best things authors can do for their fiction  book at the planning stage?

Shelley Lieber:

• Get your book premise clear: Who is the protagonist? What is the predicament?
• Identify the characters. Make a character list and describe each character physically and psychologically. Write a few dialogue lines. Give them each a unique voice.
• Read your manuscript aloud to get a feel for their voices.

PRODUCTION STAGE

Maria Mar: What is involved in the production stage?

Shelley Lieber:

• At the production stage, you are producing the manuscript. You are developing your skills and honing the writing. At this stage you are also keeping your writer’s discipline.
• Beginning writers often ask me that that they don’t have time to write. My answer: You don’t have time. You MAKE time.
• I recommend that you set a page or word count goal for each writing session. If you say that you are going to write for 30 minutes, you may find yourself with an empty page at the end of the 30 minutes!
• I strongly recommend that you join a writing group.
• If you are an expert, but do not necessarily want to be a writer, you can work with an editor or ghostwriter. They can take your knowledge and give it shape and style.

Maria Mar: How can women writers can use an online presence and new technologies to present their content in different or new ways, and when in the book development process should they plan for this?

Shelley Lieber:

That’s a great question because there are so many new technologies now that can help writers present their book. I recommend that they do this even before or as they write their book. Here are a couple of ideas.

Start your blog. If you are a fiction writer, you can write the blog from the protagonist’s point of view.

Create your newsletter. Start with a monthly newsletter. Newsletters are a lot of work, but they help you cultivate a relationship with your readers.

Network: Think of the topic, the readers and the places in your book, and network with people who have those passions or in those areas. If you are talking about race car driving, then connect to car racing associations and events, for example.

PUBLISHING STAGE

Maria Mar: What criteria should an author examine in order to establish if she should seek a POD publisher, do self-publishing or go to a traditional publisher?*

Shelley Lieber:

A writer needs to be clear on her goals. If you want to write a book for an intimate audience, let’s say to sell to friends and family, or to a small niche, then you may want to go the POD or self-publishing way.

If you are publishing the book to increase your business or position yourself as a visible expert, you may also use these publishing means because going to a traditional publisher may take 3-4 years to get the agent, sell the book to the publisher, and then get it published. To use the book within your business goals and timetable, POD or self-publishing are the best options.

But if you are a fiction writer who has polished her craft and wants her book to be a best-seller, then you may want to go to a traditional publisher.
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* NOTE: We were packing so much information, that I forgot to ask Shelley how she differentiates POD from Self-publishing. Here is my take:

POD Publishing means Print-on-demand publishing. There are many publishers that offer this service now. They charge the author a basic fee, plus the cost of printing and other services. They may also have editing, proofreading and other services, usually for an additional fee. Many of these POD publishers now offer distribution services, and the best ones offer a book return program so that your book can be distributed by the main distributors and sold at Barnes and Nobles, Amazon, etc. For a comparison on these services, go to:

http://www.publishondemand.net/

Self-publishing means that you publish your book yourself. The ISBN is yours. You may publish using print-on-demand or offset printing. The main element that differentiates whether you are a self-publisher is that the book’s ISBN is yours. Whoever has the ISBN of a book is recognized as the legal publisher and owns the rights to sell and market that book. Many POD publishers call their service self-publishing. But if they hold the ISBN, then you are not self-publishing. You may retain your copyright, and may (though be careful here) retrieve this copyright at any time to go with a traditional publisher or publish yourself. But you will –in most cases– have to start all over and get the book formatted again, and get another ISBN.

For a list of printers (digital and regular printing), as well as pointers in choosing your printer, go to the website of the Aeonix Publishing Group, by Pete Masterson:

http://www.aeonix.com/bookprnt.htm#anchor362837

Here is John Kremers’ list of publishers and editors for novels:

http://www.bookmarket.com/newnovels.htm

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PROMOTION STAGE

Maria Mar: How much time does a writer need to commit to the promotion of her book and for how long?

Shelley Lieber:

Whether you go the POD, self-publishing or traditional publishing route, you as a writer are responsible for promoting your book. According to John Kremer, it takes about 3 years to position your book after it is completed. You should reserve 75-80% of your time to promote your book at the beginning of that stage. After your book is selling well, you can then reduce that time.

And that’s just a sample. There’s tons more information in the radio recording.

Listen to the entire radio show at:

http://www.writetodream.com/radioshow/no4.htm

We give a big thanks to Shelley Lieber for her generous, clear answers and sharing her knowledge with us. You can visit Shelley at: http://www.shelleylieber.com

Light and love,

Maria Mar

The Dream Alchemist